When Vivienne Harr was
eight, her parents showed her
a photo of two young boys in
Nepal carrying large rocks
strapped to their backs. “I didn’t
even know slaver y existed
before I saw that photo,” says
Vivienne, now nine.
From that point on, she and
her family decided they would
dedicate themselves to the
cause of ending child slaver y.
They star ted last summer with
a single lemonade stand, but by
harnessing the power of social
media, they raised more than
$100,000 in six months for
Not For Sale, a nonprofit aimed
at halting human trafficking.
To date, $1 million has been
raised to expand into bottling
their “lemon-aid.” And Make a
Stand Inc., the “ for-profit social
purpose company,” will donate
half the profits to organizations
working to eliminate slaver y.
“It’s Vivienne’s dream to
end slavery within her lifetime,”
her mom, Alexandra Harr, told
Mindful. Others have noticed
her daughter’s effor ts, too—
Vivienne spoke at Wisdom 2.0
in Februar y, a conference that
at tracts leaders in technol-
ogy and social change, was
recently filmed for a documen-
tar y, and has been invited to
visit the White House.
Vivienne attends Marin
Mindfulness, a cooperative in
Marin County, California, that
Children Helping Children
teaches mindfulness to teach-
ers, parents, children, and
teenagers. Children take on
ser vice projects such as baking
cookies to raise money for an
orphanage, growing vegeta-
bles for a food bank, and mak-
ing signs to encourage the use
of bicycles. Children often team
up to suppor t one another,
practicing mindfulness in the
process and experiencing how
it feels to ser ve others and take
positive action.
Helping children feel
they are par t of the solu-
tion to the world’s problems
can keep them from feeling
over whelmed, says Lesley
Grant, founder and director of
Marin Mindfulness. “A lot of
jadedness comes from being
exposed to so much without
having a way to help. Giving
them a way to respond, in a way
that suits their development,
is incredibly healing for them.”
And Vivienne agrees. “I just
feel like you don’t have to be
someone big to help. You can
be anyone—like me.” ●
To learn more about
Vivienne Harr and
her fundraising, go to
mindful.org/lemonaid
now
14 mindful October 2013
Illustration by Gavin Potenza